At the beginning of the the summer we made a decision as a family to have me stay home with the kids over the summer break. I would take care of the kids and see what kind of work I could do on the house. We ended up having one of the best summers!

We spent lots of time swimming and playing at the house, but as soon as I was given any free time I was scraping wood. Any painted wood in the house was up for discussion, but I mostly focused on the doors in our mudroom and kitchen.

Many people questioned why I would bother but I felt like the effort was worth the end result and it gave me a chance to make a mark on the house.

Each door required a different method depending on what kind of paint was used and how long that paint was on the door for. Each scrape revealed a new paint colour.

Some doors were damaged and needed to be filled but one door in particular was suprisingly undamaged and came out amazingly.

The Kitchen door that leads to the mud room is arguably used the most and had next to no damage. The paint lifted from the door with little effort to reveal a beautiful cedar door.

My plan for most of the doors was to scrape, assess, fill, sand and paint. When I assessed this door it was apparent that I would just put polyurathane on it, it was too beautiful to paint.

It was a wonderful surprise and I love looking at it everyday, as it faces the inside of my kitchen.

Of course you can't scrape the doors without removing the hardware. You also can't remove the hardware without cleaning it and repainting it.

It all came out great and i am very happy I spent the time and effort to take the project on. There is still lots of doors and trim to be worked on but it was a start. It allowed me to see that it is feasable to restore some of the wood in the house.

Idle Hands

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